Prognosis of ampullary cancer based on immunohistochemical type and expression of osteopontin

BACKGROUND: Ampullary cancer (AC) was classified as pancreatobiliary, intestinal, or other subtype based on the expression of cytokeratin 7 (CK7) and cytokeratin 20 (CK20). We aimed to explore the association of AC subtype with patient prognosis. METHODS: The relationship of AC subtype and expression of Osteopontin (OPN) with the prognosis of 120 AC patients after pancreaticoduodenectomy was investigated. RESULTS: The patients had pancreatobiliary (CK7+/CK20-, n = 24, 20%), intestinal (CK7-/CK20+, n = 29, 24.2%) or other (CK7+/CK20+ or CK7-/CK20-, n = 67, 55.8%) subtypes of AC, and their median survival times were 23 ± 4.2, 38 ± 2.8 and 64 ± 16.8 months, respectively. The survival times of 64 OPN- patients (53.3%) and 56 OPN+ patients (46.7%) were 69 ± 18.4 and 36 ± 1.3 months, respectively. There was no significant effect of AC subtype on survival of OPN- patients. For OPN+ patients, those with pancreatobiliary AC had a shorter survival time (22 ± 6.6 months) than those with intestinal AC (37 ± 1.4 months, p = 0.041), and other AC subtype (36 ± 0.9 months, p = 0.010); intestinal and other AC subtypes had similar survival times. CONCLUSIONS: The prognosis of AC patients can be estimated based on immunohistochemical classification and OPN status.